Push For Smoking Ban At Local Level

Publication Date: 2007-12-11

• Author:Lou Raguse
• Publication:KELOLAND TV, SD

Minnesota's smoking ban at restaurants and bars has some people wondering whether South Dakota will adopt similar rules.

For that to happen, the American Cancer Society says local governments may need more power.

In Minnesota, the smoking bans began more than two years ago in the Twin Cities, then spread to other cities and counties throughout the state, before the legislature passed a state-wide ban this year.

The American Cancer Society would like to make a similar scenerio possible in South Dakota...

But the American Cancer Society is fighting for cleaner air in restaurants and bars, and is currently having trouble in South Dakota.

"Right now the State is the only regulator of tobacco in the state of South Dakota," says Erik Gaikowski of the American Cancer Society.

Local governments can't regulate tobacco. Only the state legislature can. So the American Cancer Society is asking lawmakers to repeal that law, so local governments could pass a ban and a possible snowball effect can happen.

"A great example is Minnesota, where a lot of the cities started going smoke free and then the state just followed suit after that. Right now we can't do that in South Dakota," Gaikowski says.